NÖ Kulturwirtschaft GesmbH (“Lower Austrian Cultural Industries LLC,” referred to hereafter as NÖKU Holding) is not only an investment and financial holding, but above all also a strategic content-based management holding that brings together twelve subsidiaries with more than 30 artistic and scientific institutions in the exhibition and event industry. They rank among the most important in the state of Lower Austria and mainly have a cross-regional or Central European focus.

These subsidiaries provide platforms for a large number of highly diverse artistic and scientific activities in the areas of music, music and straight theater, cabaret, performance, sound art, dance, visual arts, literature, film, discourse, archeology, history, natural history, and regional studies.

The individual artistic, cultural, and scientific institutions develop a distinct and unique thematic profile on the basis of NÖKU Group’s Artistic and Scientific Conceptual Framework. It defines a first fundamental, content-related strategic orientation and spheres of activity for individual institutions. Going forward, the mere distinction between artistic and scientific institutions will be replaced by a continuous, deliberate, and joint content-based design and management process.

NÖKU Holding serves three key functions:

• Content-related strategic guidance
• Economic governance and policy-making power (especially allocation of subsidies based on the NÖKU Funding Agreement, budgeting and accounting guidelines, uniform auditing, etc.)
• Acting as a service provider in the areas of accounting, payment transactions, controlling, ticketing and CRM technology, IT network technology, wireframe technology, telephone services, and dedicated lines

The fulfillment of these tasks is always centered on the independence and freedom of the arts and sciences in their given diversity as well as on an openness for new cultural/artistic or scientific developments at home and abroad.

In the spirit of transparent and efficiency-oriented management, within NÖKU Group the link between art, culture, scholarship and entrepreneurial thinking and action is not seen as a contradiction, but lived as a contemporary and logical connection.

The Workspaces at NÖ Kulturwirtschaft GesmbH

At NÖKU Holding’s headquarters in St. Pölten, just over 40 employees in various areas of competence are in charge of both the best-possible strategic content-related and the professional economic management of the entire NÖKU Group. Of course, the concept of service is never far from their minds — the employees of NÖKU Holding support their colleagues at NÖKU organizations, providing top-notch quality of service.

COOPERATION NEEDS CULTURE

Our understanding and our philosophy of successful leadership work and cooperation is laid down in our Leadership and Cooperation Mission Statement. Our long-term success is based on strongly identifying with our content, enthusiasm for artistic and scientific objectives, as well as above-average performance of our employees and convincing leadership qualities, which center on our visitors.

• Clarity
  Individuality, creativity, and creative freedom are essential parameters for artistic creation and scholarly work. It takes clarity to ensure they really are a given.
• Responsibility, consistency, and commitment
  Responsible, consistent action and commitment make motivated and content working possible.
• Challenge and support
  Purposeful challenging and supporting form the basis of the positive further development of our employees and, thus, of all of NÖKU Group.
• Communication
  Talking, making phone calls, mailing, showing, presenting, discussing, arguing, laughing, looking, texting, listening, reading … — communication in all these forms is the basic prerequisite for efficient and successful cooperation.
• Orientation towards solutions and resources
  The active search for opportunities to improve framework conditions and, thus, achieve agreed-upon goals more efficiently is the starting point for solution-based action.

STRATEGIC GOALS

NÖKU Group as a vibrant and challenging community and an important employer in the areas of art, culture, and scholarship in Lower Austria has committed to achieving strategic goals over the next ten years in order to meet the demands of our employees in a state-of-the-art fashion.

• Furnishing of software tools and know-how support by NÖKU Holding towards professionalizing the recruiting processes at NÖKU Group
• Challenging and supporting employees optimally through consistent human resources development and qualification (especially the development and fostering of junior managers in the sense of well-aimed and consistent promotion of talent, including mentoring and coaching opportunities)
• Broad opportunities for employees to participate in the strategic content-related management and in innovation processes
• Clear, transparent and assessable career, advancement, and/or development opportunities as well as job rotation within NÖKU Group
• Raising the attractiveness, step by step, of competitive remuneration packages
• Collegial, appreciative, and open working and communication climate in accordance with the current Leadership and Cooperation Mission Statement
• High quality working and living conditions, on the one hand through meaningful work and, on the other hand, through flexible working hours models
• Work-life balance
• Lived intercultural teams
• Best-possible design of workspaces and the working environment.
• Honorary work, traineeship or internship: increased active involvement and participation of young people, along with other age and social groups, such as seniors, in the cultural organizations and/or their associations of friends and societies for their promotion.
• Improvement of knowledge management